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114

CHARACTER - DISPOSITION, &c.

13. There are no birds in last year's nest.

H. W. LONGFELLOW.

14. Your coldness I heed not, your frown I defy;

Your affection I need not-the time has gone by,
When a blush or a smile on that cheek could beguile
My soul from its safety, with witchery's wile.

MRS. OSGOOD.
15. Oh! what a change comes over that sad heart!
Where all was joyous, light, and free from care,
All thoughts of peace do for a time depart,
And yield to rage, and anguish, and despair!

J. T. WATSON.

CHARACTER-DISPOSITION, &c.

1. He was a man of rare, undoubted might,
Famous throughout the world for warlike praise,
And glorious spoils purchas'd in perilous fight;
Full many doughty knights he, in his days,
Had done to death, subdued in equal frays.

SPENSER'S Fairy Queen.

2. With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws, and modern instances.

SHAKSPEARE.

3. Who steals my purse, steals trash; 't is something, nothing,
'T was mine, 't is his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he, who filches from me my good name,

Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.

SHAKSPEARE.

4. The purest treasure mortal times afford,
Is spotless reputation; that away,
Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay.

SHAKSPEARE.

5. Gnats are unnotic'd, wheresoe'er they fly, But eagles gaz'd upon with ev'ry eye.

SHAKSPEARE.

6. In all thy humours, whether grave or mellow,
Thou'rt such a touchy, testy, pleasant fellow,
Hast so much wit and mirth, and spleen about thee,
There is no living with thee, nor without thee.

7. With warlike sword, and sing-song lay, Equipp'd alike for feast or fray.

From MARTIAL.

TRUMBULL'S Mc Fingal.

8. Though gay as mirth, as curious thought sedate;

As elegance polite, as power elate;
Profound as reason, and as justice clear;
Soft as compassion, yet as truth severe.

9. Without, or with, offence to friends or foes, I sketch the world exactly as it goes.

SAVAGE.

BYRON'S Don Juan.

10. Cold-blooded, smooth-fac'd, placid miscreant.

BYRON'S Don Juan.

11. Here's a sigh for those who love me, And a smile for those who hate;

And, whatever sky's above me,

Here's a heart for ev'ry fate.

12. With more capacity for love, than earth

Bestows on most of mortal mould and birth,
His early dreams of good outstripp'd the truth,
And troubled manhood follow'd baffled youth.

BYRON.

BYRON'S Lara.

13. Quick in revenge, and passionately proud,
His brightest hour still shone forth from a cloud;
And none conjecture on the next could form,—
So play'd the sunbeam on the verge of storm.

The New Timon.

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14. It was not mirth-for mirth she was too still;
It was not wit-wit leaves the heart more chill;
But that continuous sweetness, which with ease
Pleases all round it, from the wish to please.

15.

The dark grave,

The New Timon.

Which knows all secrets, can alone reclaim
The fatal doubt once cast on woman's name.

HON. W. HERBERT.

16. Devoted, anxious, generous, void of guile,

And with her whole heart's welcome in her smile.

CHARITY.

MRS. NORTON.

1. The secret pleasure of a generous act Is the great mind's great bribe.

2. In faith and hope the world will disagree,
But all mankind's concern'd in charity;

All must be false, that thwart this one great end;
And all of God, that bless mankind, or mend.

DRYDEN.

POPE'S Essay on Man.

3. There are, while human miseries abound,
A thousand ways to waste superfluous wealth,
Without one fool or flatterer at our board,
Without one hour of sickness or disgust.

4. Let shining Charity adorn your zeal,
The noblest impulse generous minds can feel.

5. The truly generous is the truly wise;
And he, who loves not others, lives unblest.

ARMSTRONG

AARON HILL.

HOME's Douglass.

117

CHASTITY-CHEERFULNESS - MIRTH, &c.

6. And learn the luxury of doing good.

GOLDSMITH'S Traveller.

7. True charity, a plant divinely nurs'd,
Fed by the love from which it rose at first,
Thrives against hope, and, in the rudest scene,
Storms but enliven its unfading green;
Exuberant in the shadow it supplies,

Its fruit on earth, its growth above the skies.

8. The drying up a single tear has more
Of honest fame, than shedding seas of gore.

CowPER.

BYRON'S Don Juan.

9. Unfee'd, the calls of nature she obeys, Not led by profit, nor allur'd by praise.

CRABBE.

10. Would'st thou from sorrow find a sweet relief,
Or is thy heart oppress'd with woe untold?
Balm would'st thou gather for corroding grief?-
Pour blessings round thee, like a shower of gold.
CARLOS WILCOX.

11. The ear, inclin❜d to ev'ry voice of grief,

The hand that op'd spontaneous to relief,

The heart, whose impulse stay'd not for the mind
To freeze to doubt what Charity enjoin'd,

But sprang to man's warm instinct for mankind.

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118

CHEERFULNESS - MIRTH-SMILE, &c.

2. And therein sate a lady, fresh and fair,

Making sweet solace to herself alone;
Sometimes she sung as loud as lark in air,
Sometimes she laugh'd that nigh her breath was gone.
Yet was there not with her else any one,

That to her might move cause of merriment;
Matter of mirth enough, though there was none,
She could divine; and thousand ways invent
To feed her foolish humour and vain jolliment.

SPENSER'S Fairy Queen.

3. Which, when I saw rehears'd, I must confess, Made my eyes water, but more merry tears The passion of loud laughter never shed.

SHAKSPEARE.

4. With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come,
And let my liver rather heat with wine,
Than my heart cool with mortifying gloom.

5. Fantastic, frolicsome, and wild,

With all the trinkets of a child.

SHAKSPEARE.

COTTON.

6. And the loud laugh, that spoke the vacant mind.

GOLDSMITH.

7. In short, so provoking a devil was Dick,

That we wish'd him full ten times a day at Old Nick;
But, missing his mirth and agreeable vein,

As often we wish'd to have Dick back again.

GOLDSMITH'S Retaliation.

8. Rare compound of oddity, frolic and fun, Who relish'd a joke, and rejoic'd in a pun.

GOLDSMITH'S Retaliation.

9. Full well they laugh'd, with counterfeited glee, At all his jokes, for many a joke had he.

GOLDSMITH'S Deserted Village.

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